felicity of this world could not bestow true rest and even upon him who was the Master of it until the end of life Man is born as Job saith to labour Until death there is no rest Let us not then seek it here but let us place the chair of our joyes where it may be firm and stable and not in the unquietness and turmoyles of things temporal where death at least will certainly overthrow it Others painted Eternity in the form of a Snake to note the condition of a perpetual continuance not subject unto change but remaining still in the same estate and vigour For as this Serpent wants wings feet and hands which are the extremities of other creatures so Eternity wants an end which is the extremity of things temporal Apud Euseb l. 1. de praepar Evang c. 7. Moreover as Serpents although without feet wings or any extrinsecal organ of motion yet by their great liveliness of spirit move more swiftly then those creatures which have them so Eternity without dayes or nights or changes which are the feet and wings of time out-strips and over-go's all things that are temporal Besides Serpents enjoy such a vivacity and length of life that Philon Biblius saith they die not unless they be kill'd and that they hardly know a natural death being not subject to those changes of other creatures from youth to age and from health to sickness but preserve themselves still fresh and young by the often renewing and casting of their old skins neither have they like other creatures any determinate size of their greatness but so long as they live encrease in bigness after the manner of Eternity which hath no limit change or declination a condition of all others most to be feared by the wicked who are for ever to continue in those eternal torments without the least refreshment and without so much as the comfort of changing one torment for another St. Paulinus said of St. Martin that his rest was to change his labours and certainly to change one pain for another although not in it self much less is yet some ease But even this shall be wanting unto the damned who shall never be permitted so much change as to turn from one side to another A fearful thing that being now five thousand years past since the first damned Soul was plunged into hell that during all this time no change should afford him the least ease How many alterations have since happened in this world yet none in his most bitter torments The world hath once been destroyed by an universal deluge eight onely persons remaining alive After which all men enjoying an equal liberty the Assyrians became Tyrants over the rest and raised the first Monarchy which endured 1240 years and then not without the general uproar and turmoyl of all Asia passed unto the Medes under whom it continued 300 years Which ended it came unto the Persians and from them unto the Grecians from whom not without greater alteration then any of the former it passed unto the Romans under whom also it hath since failed Amongst all which changes and revolutions of the world none hath yet passed over that miserable and unfortunate creature Besides these alterations in government what alterations hath nature it self suffered what Islands hath the Sea swallowed up one of which as Plato reports was bigger than all Europe and Affrica And what others hath it cast up of new What buildings or to say better what Mountains hath the Earthquakes left secure many Hills have been overwhelmed or turned topsie turvie others have appeared and sprung up never known before What Cities have been sunk what Rivers dried up and others vomited forth through new Channels what Towers have not fallen what Walls not been ruin'd what Monuments not defaced how often hath the face of things changed how many revolutions have the greatest Kingdoms suffered and this miserable sinner hath in all this time not given one turn How many times hath the year renewed it self how many Springs how many Autumns past and yet he remains in that obscure night as in his first entrance into that place of torments The Sun hath compassed this elemental World a Million and 700000 times and yet this wretched Soul could never once change his posture or remove one pace since his first falling into hell Besides this what troubles what labours have been passed by those innumerable people who have lived from the beginning of the world until this present and are now all vanisht what sicknesses have been suffered what torments what griefs endured and are now all forgotten but no grief nor torment of that unfortunate Sinner hath in these 5000 years passed away or shall ever become less Ptolomy roared out with the pain of his Gout Aristarcus was grieved with his Dropsie Cambyses was afflicted with his Falling-sickness Theopompus afflicted with his Ptisick Tobias with his blindness and holy Job with his Leprosie yet those griefs had their end But all those evils which joyntly possess this miserable creature have not or ever shall have change or period They of Rabatha were sawed in the middest others thrashed to death with Flails others burnt alive in Furnaces others torn in pieces by wild Beasts Anaxarcus was pounded in a Mortar Perillus burnt in a brazen Bull. But all those pains passed away and are now no more but that damned person hath not yet made an end or to say better hath not yet begun to pass any one of his torments which 100000 years hence shall be as new and sensible unto him as they were in the beginning What desperation must then seise upon him when he sees a change in all things and in his pains and torments none for if even the pleasures of this life if continued the same convert into griefs how shall those pains which never change be suffered what spite and madness shall possess him when he shall behold the Flames of St. Lawrence the Stripes of St. Clement of Aneira the Cross of St. Andrew the Fasts of St. Hilarion the Haircloth of Simeon Stylites the Disciplines of St. Dominick all the Torments of Martyrs and Penances of Confessors now passed and turned into eternal joyes but his own pains neither to pass nor change neither any hopes left either of ending his torments or himself These are evils to be feared and not those transitory ones of the world which either change grow less or end or at least make an end of him who suffers them Let not therefore the sick person be grieved and vexed with his infirmities nor the poor man with his wants nor the afflicted with his crosses since the evils of this life are either changed with time eased by counsel and consolations or at least ended by death But this miserable wretch in Hell cannot so much as comfort himself with the hope of dying because in that multitude of torments if there were the least hope of end it would be some ease some refreshment
make the poor Philosopher to forbear his dinner and not to relish one morsel of the Feast with pleasure Thou then who art no more secure of thy life than he how canst thou delight in the pleasures of the world he who every moment expects death ought no moment to delight in life This onely consideration of death according to Ricardus was sufficient to make us distaste all the pleasures of the earth A great danger or fear suffices to take away the sense of lesser joyes and what greater danger then that of Eternity Death is therefore uncertain that thou shouldest be ever certain to despise this life and dispose thy self for the other Thou art every hour in danger of death to the end that thou shouldest be every hour prepared to leave life What is death but the way unto eternity A great journey thou hast to make wherefore doest thou not provide in time and the rather because thou knowest not how soon thou mayest be forced to depart The People of God because they knew not when they were to march were for forty years which they remained in the Wilderness ever in a readiness Be thou then ever in a readiness since thou mayst perhaps depart to day Consider there is much to do in dying prepare thy self whilest thou hast time and do it well For this many years were necessary wherefore since thou knowest not whether thou shalt have one day allowed thee why doest thou not this day begin to dispose thy self If when thou makest a short journey and hast furnished and provided thy self of all things fitting yet thou commonly findest something to be forgotten how comes it to pass that for so long a journey as is the Region of Eternity thou thinkest thy self sufficiently provided when thou hast scarce begun to think of it Who is there who does not desire to have served God faithfully two years before death should take him if then thou art not secure of one why doest thou not begin Trust not in thy health or youth for death steals treacherously upon us when we least look for it for according to the saying of Christ our Redeemer it will come in an hour when it is not thought on And the Apostle said the day of the Lord would come like a theef in the night when none were aware of it and when the Master of the house was in a profound sleep Promise not thy self to morrow for thou knowest not whether death will come to night The day before the Children of Israel went forth of Egypt how many of that Kingdom young Lords and Princes of Families promised themselves to doe great matters the next day or perhaps within a year after yet none of them lived to see the morning Wisely did Messodamus who as Guido Bituricensis writes when one invited him forth the next day to dinner answered My friend why doest thou summon me for to morrow since it is many years that I durst not promise any thing for the day following every hour I look for death there is no trust to be given to strength of Body youthful years much riches or humane hopes Hear what God sayes to the Prophet Amos Amos 8. In that day the Sun shall set at midday and I will over-cast the earth with darkness in the day of light What is the setting of the Sun at midday but when men think they are in the middest of their life in the flower of their age when they hope to live many years to possess great wealth to marry rich wives to shine in the world then death comes and over-shadows the brightness of their day with a cloud of sorrow as it happened in the Story related by Alexander Faya Alex. Faya To. 2. Ladislaus King of Hungary and Bohemia sent a most solemn Embassage unto Charles King of France for the conducting home of that Kings Daughter who was espoused unto the Prince his Son The chief Embassador elected for this journey was Vdabricas Bishop of Passaw for whose Attendants were selected 200 principal men of Hungary 200 of Bohemia and other 200 of Austria all persons of eminent Birth and Nobility so richly clad and in so brave an Equipage that they appeared as so many Princes To these the Bishop added an hundred Gentlemen chosen out of his own Subjects so that they passed through France 700 Gentlemen in company most richly accoutred and for the greater Pomp and Magnificence of the Embassage there went along with them 400 beautiful Ladies in sumptuous habits and adorned with most costly jewels the Coaches which carried them were studded with gold and enchased with stones of value Besides all this were many Gifts and rich Garments of inestimable price which they brought along with them for Presents But the very day that this glorious Embassage entred Paris before they came at the place appointed for their entertainment a Curriere arrived with the news of the death of the espoused Prince Such was the grief that struck the heart of the French King with so unexpected a news as he could neither give an answer to the Embassage nor speak with the Embassadour or those who accompanied him and so they departed most sorrowful from Paris and every one returned unto his own home In this manner God knows by the means of death to fill the earth with darkness and sorrow in the day of greatest brightness as he spake by his Prophet Since then thou knowest not when thou art to dye think thou must dye to day and be ever prepared for that which may ever happen Trust in the mercies of God and imploy them incessantly but presume not to deferre thy conversion for a moment For who knows whether thou shalt ever from hence forward have time to invoke him and having invoked him whether thou shalt deserve to be heard Know that the mercy of God is not promised to those who therefore trust in him that they may sin with hope of pardon but unto those who fearing his Divine Justice cease to offend him wherefore St. Cregory says The mercies of Almighty God forget him Greg. in moral who forgets his Justice nor shall he find him merciful who does not fear him just For this it is so often repeated in Scripture That the mercy of God is for those who fear him And in one part it is said The mercy of the Lord from eternity unto eternity is upon those who fear him And in anothâ—r As the Father hath mercy on his Son so the Lord hath mercy on these who fear him In another According to the height from earth unto heaven he has corroborated his mercy upon those that fear him Finally the very Mother of mercy sayes in her Divine Canticle That the mercy of the Lord is from generation to generation upon those who fear him Thou seest then that the Divine mercy is not promised unto all and that thou shalt remain excluded from it whilest thou presumest and doest not fear his justice And
felicity in pamparing himself here will be tormented hereafter and he who is unjustly flattered and honoured here shall be justly scornd and despised there This was well declared by St. Vincent Ferrer in a comparison of the Faulcon and the Hen. The Hen whilest she lives seeks her food in the dirt and dunghils and at best feeds now and then upon some bran or light corn The Faulcon to the contrary is cherished carried upon his Masters fist and fed with the brains of Birds and Partridges but after death they change their conditions for the Faulcon is flung upon the dunghil and the Hen served to the table of Kings As Jacob changed his hands placing his right hand upon his Grandchild who stood upon his left side and his left hand upon him who stood upon the right preferring the younger before the elder so God uses to change his hands after death and preferre the younger who are the poor and despised in this life For this Christ our Redeemer pronounces so many Woes against the rich of this world Woe be unto you rich who rejoyce in this world yee shall weep in the next Woe be unto you who are now filled you shall hunger hereafter Woe be unto them who have their heaven here it is to be feared a hell will succeed it Let us tremble at what was spoken unto the rich glutton Thou didst receive pleasure in this life and for this eternal evils succeeded thee after death changing hands with poor Lazarus who received evils in this life and after death enjoyed the pleasures of the other The rich man who wanted not abundance of precious wines in this life wanted a drop of water to cool his tongue in the next And Lazarus who here wanted the crums of bread that fell from his table was feasted with the Supper of eternal happiness The Prophet Jeremias writes that Nabuzardan carried a way the rich Captives unto Babylon Jer. 39. and left the poor in Jerusalem because the Devil carries away the slayes and lovers of riches unto Babylon which is the confusion of hell and leaves the poor in spirit in Jerusalem which is the vision of peace that they may there enjoy the clear sight of God The felicity of temporal goods blots out of our memories the greatness of the eternal it makes us forget God and the happiness of the other life it blindes those who possesse them busies them wholly in things of the Earth and gives them that means and opportunities for vices which the poor have not who either work or serve their Masters or pray Wherefore the enjoying of temporal goods is so dangerous 1 Ti. 6. that St. Paul calls Riches the Snare of the Devil And if in ail Snares there be falshood and danger how false and dangerous must be the Snares of Satan Laer. l. 9. c. 4. Even Diogenes was aware of this truth and therefore calls them a Vail of malice and perdition St. Hieron in Algas Ep. 84. St. Jerome says that anciently there were too notable Proverbs in prejudice of the Rich The first That he who was very rich could not be a good man The second That he who was rich had either been a bad man or was the heir of a bad man and admonishes us that the name of Rich in the holy Scripture is most commonly taken in an ill sense and to the contrary in a favourable that of the poore The truth is that the holy Scripture is full of Contumelies against the rich of this world and above all the Son of God who uttered most notable and feareful expressions against those who abound in temporal goods and therefore when he taught the Beatitudes he gave the first of them unto the Poor and in preaching the Woes he gave the first unto the Rich. And upon another occasion said it was impossible for the Rich to enter into the Kingdom of heaven And although he was willing to mitigate so hard a Sentence yet he said it was difficult and so difficult as might make the rich of the world to tremble for he assure us it is easier for a Camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of heaven But with God nothing is impossible From all that which hath been said may be gathered how worthy of contempt and hatred are all temporal goods since they deceive us not onely of our content in this life but of our felicity in the other and even of God himself What implacable hatred would a faithful and honest Spouse conceive against that Traitor who counterfeiting the shape and habit of her Husband should violate her Chastity how would she abhorre him when she knew the injury he had done her in a matter of that importance In the same manner are we betrayed by temporal felicity who appearing unto its in the likeness of the true happiness makes our hearts to adulterate with it and leave our lawful Spouse and true good indeed which is God For certainly there is no perfect felicity but in his service and complyance with his holy will in this life that we may enjoy him eternally in the next and therefore temporal goods which by their deceit cozen us and make us lose the eternal ought not to be loved and followed but hated as a thousand deaths THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT THE TEMPORAL and ETERNAL CAP. I. Of the greatness of things Eternal ALthough the littleness and baseness of things temporal be in themselves such as we have already seen yet unto him who shall consider the greatness and Majesty of the eternal whereof we now begin to treat they will appear much less and more contemptible For such is the greatness of that glory that St. Austin falls into these speeches Augus in Man If it were requisite every day to suffer torments or to remain in hell it self for some long time to the end we might behold Christ in his glory and enjoy the company of Saints were it much to suffer what is grievous and painful upon earth that we might be partakers of so great a happiness which speech of St. Austin is not to be taken as an exaggeration as neither that which is attributed to St. Jerome That it is a wonder that the stones under the feet of those who shall be damned convert not into roses as an anticipated solace of those evils which they are to suffer And that to the contrary those under the feet of them who are to be saved turn not into thorns to wound and chastise them for their sins since for so short troubles they are to receive unspeakable joyes This greatness of eternal goodness consists not onely in the eternity of their duration but in their intention also as being supreme and without limit in their excellency And therefore we ought not to think much at the suffering of a thousand years torments if for them we might obtain those blessings but for
the goods of life being limited it bestows them with a limited and restrained hand Even life it self it gives us but by peeces and mingles as many parts of death as it gives of life The age of Infancy dies when we enter into that of Childhood that of Childhood when we become Youths that of youth when we come to the age of Manhood that when we are old and even old age it self expires when we become decrepit so that during the same life we find many deaths and yet can hardly perswade our selves that we shall die one Let us cast our eyes upon our life past let us consider what is become of our Infancy Childhood and Youth they are now dead in us In the same manner shall those ages of our life which are to come die also Neither do we onely die in the principal times of life but every hour every moment includes a kinde of death in the succession and change of things What content is there in life which quickly dies not by some succeeding sorrow what affliction of pain which is not followed by some equal or greater grief then it self why are we grieved for what is absent since it offends us being present what we desire with impatience being possest brings care and sollicitude loss grief and affliction The short time which any pleasure stayes with us it is not to be enjoyed wholly and all at once but tasted by parts so as when the second part comes we feel not the pleasure of the first lessening it self every moment and we our selves still dying with it there being no instant of life wherein death gains not ground of us The motion of the Heavens is but the swift turn of the spindle which rol's up the thread of our lives and a most fleet horse upon which death runs post after us There is no moment of life wherein death hath not equal jurisdiction and as a Philosopher saith there is no point of life which we divide not with death so as if well considered we live but one onely point and have not life but for this present instant Our years past are now vanisht and we enjoy no more of them than if we were already dead the years to come we yet live not and possess no more of them than if we were not yet born Yesterday is gone to morrow we know not what shall be of to day many hours are past and we live them not others are to come and whether we shall live them or no is uncertain so that all counts cast up we live but this present moment and in this also we are dying so that we cannot say that life is any thing but the half of an instant and an indivisible point divided betwixt it and death With reason as Zacharias said may this temporal life be called The shadow of death since under the. shadow of life death steals upon us and as at every step the body takes the shadow takes another so at every pace our life moves forward death equally advances with it And as Eternity hath this proportion that it is ever in beginning and is therefore a perpetual beginning so life is ever ending and concluding and may therefore be called a perpetual end and a continual death There is no pleasure in life which although it should last twenty continued years that can be present with us longer than an instant and that with such a counterpoise that in it death no less approaches than life is enjoyed Time is of so small a being and substance and consequently our life Phys 4. trac 7. c. 4. that as Albertus Magnus saith it hath no essence permanent and stable but only violent and successive with which not being able to detain it self in its Careere it precipitates into Eternity and like an ill mouthed horse runs headlong on and tramples under toot all it meets with and without stopping ruins what it finds before it And as we cannot perfectly enjoy the sight of some gallant Cavalier deckt with jewels and adorned with glitterring bravery who with bridle on the neck passed in a full Careere before us so are we not able perfectly to enjoy the things of this life which are still in motion and never rest one moment but run headlong on until they dash themselves in peeces upon the rock of death and perish in their end The name which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius gave unto Time Mar. Aurel Anton lib. 4. when he said that it was a furious and a raging wave did not a little express this condition of it for as such a wave sinks and overwhelms the Vessel not permitting the Merchant to enjoy the treasures with which she was laden so Time with his violence and fury ruins and drowns all that runs along in it This Philosopher considering the brevity and fleeting of Time judged a long and a short life to be the same whole opinion for our further understanding I shall here relate If some of the Gods saith he should tell thee that thou wert to die to morrow or the day after thou wouldest not except thou wert of a base and abject spirit make any account whether since the difference and distance betwixt the two dayes were so small In the same manner thou art to judge of the difference of dying to morrow and a thousand years hence Consider seriously how many Physicians who with knit brows have handled the pulses of their sick Patients are now themselves dead how many Mathematicians who gloried in foretelling the death of others how many Philosophers who have disputed subtilly of death and mortality how many famous Captains who have kill'd and destroyed a multitude of poor people how many Kings and Tyrants who with insolency have used their power over their oppressed Vassals how many Cities If I may so say have dyed as Helice Pompeios Herculanum and innumerable others Add unto these how many thou thy self hast known to die and assisted at their Exequies and that which yesterday was fish and fresh is to day laid in pickle or dust Momentary then is all time All this from this most-wise Prince CAP. XII How short Life is for which respect all things temporal are to be despised BEhold then what is Time and what thy Life and see if there can be any thing imagined more swift and more inconstant than it Compare Eternity which continues ever in the same state with Time which runs violently on and is ever changing and cousider that as Eternity gives a value and estimation unâ—â— those things which it preserves so Time disparages and takes away the value of those that end in it The least joy of Heaven is to be esteemed as infinite because it is infinite in duration and the greatest content of the earth is to be valued as nothing because it ends and concludes in nothing The least torment in hell ought to cause an immense fear because it is to last without end and the greatest pains of this
much happiness he had not made use of it although the misfortune chanced without his fault But the miserable damned in hell when they shall perceive that by their own fault they have lost the occasion of so great blessings as are those of heaven it is incredible what grief and resentment shall possess them CAP. XV. What is Time according to Plato and Plotinus and how deceitful is all that which is temporal THat we may yet better understand the smalness and baseness of all which is temporal I will not pass in silence the description of Time made by Platinus a famous Philosopher amongst the Platonicks who sayes that Time is an Image or Shadow of Eternity The which is conformable unto holy Scripture not onely unto that of David when he sayes that Man passes in a figure that is in time but unto that of the Wise-man Sap. 2. who defines Time in these words Our Time is the passing of a Shadow The which is no other than the imperfect moveable and vain Image of a thing consistent and solid Job 8. Job also sayes As a shadow are our dayes upon the earth And the Prophet David elsewhere My dayes have slided away as a shadow And in many other places of Scripture the same comparison is used to signifie the swiftness of Time and the vanity of our life Neither is it without mystery that the same comparison is so often used in those sacred Writings For truly few comparisons can be found more apt and proportionable for the expressing of what is Time and Eternity than that of a Statue and the Swadow of it For as a Statue remains for many years and Ages firm stable and immoveable without encrease or diminution whilest the Shadow is in continual motion now greater now lesser So is it with Time and Eternity Eternity is firm fixed and immoveable without receiving less or more Time is ever moving and changing as the Shadow which is great in the morning less at mid-day and towards night returns to its former greatness every moment changing and moving from one side unto another In the same manner the life of man hath no instant fixt but still goes on in perpetual changes and in the greatest prosperity is for the most part shortest Aman the same day he thought to sit at the Table of King Assuerus Esth 3. 7. by whom he had been exalted above all the Princes of his Kingdom was ignominiously hang'd Jud. 13. Holofernes when he hoped to enjoy the best day of his life was miserably beheaded by a woman King Baltassar in the most solemn and celebrated day of his whole raign Dan. 5. wherein he made ostentation of his great riches and royal entertainment was slain by the Persians Act. 12. Herod when he most desired to shew his Majesty being cloathed in a rich habit of Tissue embroidered with gold and by the acclamations of the people saluted as a God was mortally struck from heaven There is nothing constant in this life The Moon hath every Moneth her changes but the life of man hath them every day every hour Now he is sick now in health now sorrowful now merry now cholerick Sinesius hym 6. now fearful in so much as Sinesius not without reason compared his life unto Euripus a Streight of the Sea which ebbs and flows seaven times in a day as the most constant which is the most just man in the world falls every day seaven times The shadow wheresoever it passes leaves no track behinde it and of the greatest personages in the world when they are once dead there remains no more than if they had never lived How many preceding Emperors in the Assyrian Monarchy were Lords of the world as well as Alexander and now we remain not onely ignorant of their Monuments but know not so much as their names And of the same great Alexander what have we at this day except the vain noise of his fame Venus Alsâ—rsus Kikâ—â—ius de noviss art 4. Let that Company of Philosophers inform us who the day following assembled at his dead Corps One of them said Yesterday the whole circumference of the world sufficed not Alexander this day two yards of ground serve his turn Another in admiration cried out Yesterday Alexander was able to redeem innumerable people from the hands of death this day he cannot free himself A third exclaims Yesterday Alexander oppressed the whole earth and this day the earth oppresses him and there is no footstep in it left by which he passed Moreover how great is the difference betwixt a Statua of Gold or Marble and the Shadow That is solid and of a precious substance and this hath no being or body In the same manner the life eternal is most precious and of great concernment the temporal vain and miserable without substance The Shadow hath no other being but to be a privation of the most excellent quality in nature and of the most beautiful thing the world produces which is the light of the Sun In the same manner this life without substance or being is a privation of our greatest happiness Wherefore Job said Job 9. His dayes fled away and his eyes saw not what was good This said he who was a Prince and possessed great riches and many Servants and a numerous Family and yet he sayes that in his life he saw not what was good which he might say with much truth because the goods of this life are not to be called such and if they were yet the pleasure of them endures so short a space as they are done before we are sensible of them and if they should continue some time yet being subject to end they are to be esteemed as if they were not The which was confessed by a certain Cavalier called Rowland Hist de S. Dom. who having been present at a Feast celebrated with great cost and bravery to the high content and satisfaction of the invited Guests at night when he returned home cried out with much bitterness of spirit Where is the Feast we had to day where is the glory of it how is this day past without leaving any tract behinde it even so shall the rest of this life pass without leaving any thing to suceed it but eternal sorrow This consideration sufficed to make him change his life and the next day to enter into Religion And as in a shadow all is obscurity so this life is full of darkness and deceit Whereupon Zacharias said That men sat in darkness and in the shadow of death Much are we deceived whilest we live in this body of death since this life although short appears long unto us and being miserable yet we are pleased and content with it and being nothing yet it seems as if it were all things and there is not any danger which men undergoe not for the love they bear it even unto the hazard of Eternity Doubtless this is the most prejudicial
peeces and he above all remained distracted in his wits raging with despite and madness Let us now consider Antiochus in all his pomp and glory glittering in Gold and dazling the eyes of the beholders with the splendor of his Diamonds and precious Jewels mounted upon a stately Courser commanding over numerous Armies and making the very earth tremble under him Let us then behold him in his Bed pale and wan his strength and spirits spent his loathsome body flowing with worms and corruption forsaken by his own people by reason of his pestilential and poisonous stink which infected his whole Camp and finally dying mad and in a rage Who seeing such a death would with the felicity of his life who with the condition of his misery would desire his fortune See then wherein the goods of this life conclude And as the clear and sweet waters of Jordan end in the filthy mud of the dead Sea and are swallowed up in that noysome Bitumen so the greatest splendor of this life concludes in death and those loathsome diseases which usually accompany it Act. 12. Vide Josephum Behold in what a sink of filth ended the two Herods most potent Princes Ascalonita and Agrippa This who cloathed himself in Tissue and boasted a Majesty above humane dyed devoured by worms which whilst he yet lived fed upon his corrupted and apostumated flesh flowing with horrible filth and matter Neither came the other Ascalonita to finish his dayes more happily being consumed by lice that nasty vermin by little and little bereaving him both of his life and Kingdom 3 Reg. 20. King Achab Conqueror of the King of Syria and 32 other Princes dyed wounded by a chance-arrow which pierced his body and stained his Royal Charriot with his black gore which was after licked up by hungry Dogs as it he had been some savage beast 3 Reg. 22. Neither dyed his Son Joram a more fortunate death run through the heart with a sword his body left upon the field to be devoured by birds and beasts of prey wanting in his death seaven foot of earth to cover him who in life commanded a Kingdom Who could have known Caesar who had first seen him triumph over the Conquered world and then beheld him gasping for a little breath and weltring in his own bloud which flowed from three and twenty wounds opened by so many stabs Who could believe it were the same Cyrus he who subdued the Medes conquered the Assyrian and Chaldaean Empire he who amazed the world with thirty years success of continued Victories now taken prisoner and put to an ignominious death by the Command of a Woman Who could think it were the same Alexander Plut. in ejus vita who in so short time subjugated the Persians Indians and the best part of the known world and should after behold him conquered by a Calenture feeble exhausted in body dejected in spirit dried up and parched with thirst without taste in his mouth or content in his life his eyes sunk his nose sharp his tongue cleaving to his pallat not being able to pronounce one word What an amazement is it that the heat of a poor Fever should consume the mightiest power and fortune of the world and that the greatest of temporal and humane prosperities should be drowned by the overflowing of one irregular and inordinate humour How great a Monster is Humane Life since it consists of so disproportionable parts the uncertain felicity of our whose life ending in a most certain misery How prodigious were that Monster which should have one arm of a Man and the other of an Elephant one foot of a Horse and the other of a Bear Truly the parts of this life are not much more sutable Who would marry a woman though of a comely and well proportioned body who had the head of an ugly Dragon certainly although she had a great Dowry none would covet such a Bed-fellow Wherefore then do we wed our selves unto this life which although it seems to carry along with it much content and happiness yet is in effect no less a Monster since although the body appear unto us beautiful and pleasant yet the end of it is horrible and full of misery And therefore a Philosopher said well that the end of things was their head and as men were to be known and distinguished by their faces so things by their ends and therefore who will know what life is let him look upon the end And what end of life is not full of misery Let no man flatter himself with the vigour of his health with the abundance of his riches with the splendor of his authority with the greatness of his fortune for by how much he is more fortunate by so much shall he be more miserable since his whole life is to end in misery Wherefore Agesilaus hearing the King of Persia cried up for a most fortunate and happy Prince reprehended those who extolled him saying Have patience Plutar. in ejus vita for even King Priamus whose end was so lamentable was not unfortunate at the age of the King of Persia Giving us to understand that the most happy were not to be envied whilest they lived by reason of the uncertainty of that end whereunto they are subject How many as yet appear most happy whose death will shortly discover the infelicity of their lives Plutar. in Apoph Graecis Epaminondas when they asked him who was the greatest Captain Cabrias Iphicrates or himself Answered that whilest they lived no man could judge but that the last day of their lives would deliver the Sentence and give each one their due Let no man be deceived in beholding the prosperity of a rich man let him not measure his felicity by what he sees at present but by the end wherein he shall conclude not by the sumptuousness of his Palaces not by the multitude of his Servants not by the bravery of his Apparel not by the lustre of his Dignity but let him expect the end of that which he so much admires and he shall then perceive him at best to die in his Bed dejected dismayed and strugling with the pangs and anxieties of death and if so he comes off Well otherwise wise the daggers of his enemy the teeth of some wild beast or a tyle thrown upon his head by some violent wind may serve to make an end of him when he least thinks of it This reason tells us although we had no experience of it But we see it daily confirmed by the testimony of those who are already in the gates of death and no man can better judge of life than he who stands with his back towards it Mago Dionysius Carth. de noviss Art 5. a famous Captain amongst the Carthaginians and Brother to the great Hannibal being mortally wounded confessed this truth unto his Brother saying O how great a madness is it to glory in an Eminent Command The estate of the most
the place whither he is to goe How comest thou then to forget death whither thou travellest with speed and canst not though thou desirest rest one small minute by the way For time although against thy will will draw thee along with it The way of this life is not voluntary like that of Travellers but necessary like that of condemned persons from the prison unto the place of execution To death thou standest condemned whither thou art now going how canst thou laugh A Malefactor after sentence past is so surprised with the apprehension of death that he thinks of nothing but dying We are all condemned to die how come we then to rejoyce in those things which we are to leave so sodainly Who being led to the Gallows could please himself in some little flower that was given him by the way or play with the Halter which was shortly to strangle him Since then all of us even from the instant we issue out of our Mothers wombs walk condemned unto death and know not whether we shall from thence pass into hell at least we may how come we to please our selves with the flower or to say better with the hay of some short gust of our appetites since according to the Prophet all the glory of the flesh is no more than a little hay which quickly withers How come we to delight in riches which oftentimes hasten our deaths Why consider we not this when we are certain that all that we do in this life is vanity except our preparation for death In death when as there is no time nor remedy left us we shall too late perceive this truth when as all the goods of this life shall leave us by necessity which we will not now leave with merit Death is a general privation of all goods temporal an universal Pillager of all things which even despoils the body of the soul For this it is compared unto a Theef who not onely robs us of our treasure and substance but bereaves us of our lives Since therefore thou art to leave all Why doest thou load thy self in vain What Merchant knowing that so soon as he arrived unto the Ports his Ship and Goods should both be sunk would charge his Vessel with much Merchandise Arriving at death thou and all thou hast are to sink and perish why doest thou then burthen thy self with that which is not needful but rather a hinderance to thy salvation How many forbearing to throw their Goods over-board in some great Tempest have therefore both themselves and Goods been swallowed by the raging Sea How many who out of a wicked love to these Temporal riches have lost themselves in the hour of death and will not then leave their wealth when their wealth leaves them but even at that time busie their thoughts more about it than their Salvation Whereupon St. Gregory sayes That is never lost without grief which is possest with love Humbert in tract de Septemp timore Vmbertus writes of a certain man of great wealth who falling desperately sick and Plate of gold and silver to be brought before him and in this manner spake unto his Soul My Soul all this I promise thee and thou shalt enjoy it all if thou wilt not now leave my Body and greater things I will bestow upon thee rich Possessions and sumptuous Houses upon condition thou wilt yet stay with me But finding his infirmity still to encrease and no hope left of life in a great rage and fury he fell into these desperate speeches But since thou wilt not do what I desire thee nor abide with me I recommend thee unto the Devil and immediately with these words miserably expired In this story may be seen the vanity of Temporal things and the hurt he receives by them who possesses them with too much affection What greater vanity then not to profit us in a passage of the greatest necessity and importance and what greater hurt then when they cannot avail our bodies to prejudice our souls That they put an impediment to our salvation when our affections are too much set upon them were a sufficient motive not onely to contemn them but also to detest them Robertus de Licio writes that whilest he advised a sick person to make his Confession and take care of his Soul his Servants and other Domesticks went up and down the house laying hold every one of what they could the sick man taking notice of it and attending more to what They stole from him than to what He spake to him about the salvation of his Soul made deep sighs and cried out saying Wo be to me Wo be to me who have taken so much pains to gather riches and now am compelled to leave them and they snatch them from me violently before my eyes O my Riches O my Moneys O my Jewels into whose possession are you to fall and in these cries he gave up the ghost making no more account of his Soul than if he had been a Turk Vincentius Veluacensis relates also of one Vincen. in spec moral who having lent four pounds of money upon condition that at four years end they should pay him twelve he being in state of death a Priest went to him and exhorted him to confess his sins but could get no other words from the sick person than these Such a one is to pay me twelve pounds for four and having said this died immediately Much what to this purpose is a Story related by St. Bernardin of a certain Confessarius who earnestly perswading a rich man at the time of his death to a confession could get no other words from him but How sells Wool What price bears it at present and as the Priest spake unto him Sir for Gods sake leave off this discourse and have a care of your Soul the Sick man still persevered to inform himself of such things he might hope to gain by asking him Father when will the Ships come are they yet arrived for his thoughts were so wholly taken up with matters of gain and this world that he could neither speak nor think of any thing but what tended to his profit But die Priest still urging him to look to his Soul and confess all he could get from him was I cannot and in this manner died without confession This is the Salary which the goods of the earth bestow on those who serve them that if they do not leave or ruine them before their death they are then certain at least to leave them and often hazard the salvation of those that dote upon them O foolish Sons of Adam this short life Is bestowed upon us for gaining the goods of heaven which are to last eternally and we spend it in seeking those of the earth which are to perish instantly Wherefore do we not employ this short time for the purchasing eternal glory since we are to possess no more hereafter than what we provide for here Wherefore do we not
means to escape from death which he perceived was now ready to seise upon him Or that he would mitigate those great pains which he then suffered but for the space of one short hour Or that after he was departed this life he would procure him a good lodging though but for one night and no longer The Marquess answered that those were onely in the power of God and wished him to demand things feasible here upon earth and he would not fail to serve him Unto whom the sick Souldier replied I now too late perceive all my labour and travail to be lost and all the services which I have done you in the whole course of my life to be vain and fruitless and turning himself unto those who were present spake unto them with much feeling and tears in his eyes My Bretheren behold how vainly I have spent my time being so precious a jewel in the serving of this Master obeying his Commands with much care and great danger of my Soul which at this instant is the grief I am most sensible of See how small is his power since in all these pains which afflict me he is not able to give me ease for one hours space Wherefore I admonish you that you open your eyes in time and let my error be a warning unto you that you preserve your selves from so notable a danger and that you endeavour in this world to serve such a Lord as may not onely free you from these present perplexities and preserve you from future evils but may be able to crown you with glory in another life And if the Lord by the intercession of your prayers shall be pleased to restore my health I promise hereafter not to imploy my self in the service of so poor and impotent a Master who is not able to reward me but my whole endeavour shall be to serve him who hath power to protect me and the whole world by his Divine vertue With this great repentance he dyed leaving us an example to benefit our selves by that time which God bestows upon us here for the obtaining of eternal reward § 2. Let us now come unto the second condition which is the Uncertainty of time in the Circumstances For as it is most certain that we are to dye so it is most uncertain How we are to dye and as there is nothing more known than that death is to seise upon all so there is nothing less understood than When and in What manner Who knows whether he is to dye in his old age or in his youth if by sickness or struck by a Thunder-bolt if by grief or stabbed by Poniards if suddenly or slowly if in a City or in a Wilderness if a year hence or to day the doors of death are ever open and the enemy continually lies in ambush and when we least think of him will assault us How can a man be careless to provide for a danger which ever threatens him Let us see with what art men keep their temporal things even at such time as they run no hazard The Shepheards guard their Flocks with watchful Dogs although they believe the Wolf to be far off onely because he may come And walled Towers are kept by Garrisons in time of peace because an enemy either has or may approach them But when are we secure of death when can we say that now it will not come why do we not then provide our selves against so apparent danger In frontier Towns the Centinels watch day and night although no Enemy appears nor any assault is feared why do we not alwayes watch since we are never secure from the assaults of death He who suspected that Theeves were to enter his house would wake all night because they should at no hour find him unprovided It being then not a suspicion but an apparent certainty that death will come and we know not when why do we not alwayes watch We are in a continual danger and therefore ought to be continually prepared It is good ever to have our Accompts made with God since we know not but he may call us in such haste as we shall have no time to perfect them It is good to play a sure game and be ever in the grace of God Who would not tremble to hang over some vast precipice wherein if he fell he were certain to be dashed in a thousand pieces and that by so weak a supporter as a thread This or in truth much greater is the danger of him who is in mortal sin who hangs over hell by the thread of life a twist so delicate that not a knife but the wind and the least fit of sickness breaks it Wonderful is the danger wherein he stands who continues to the space of one Ave Maria in mortal sin Death hath time enough to shoot his arrow in the speaking a word the twinkling of an eye suffices Who can laugh and be pleased whilest he stands naked and disarmed in the middest of his Enemies Amongst as many Enemies is man as there are wayes to death which are innumerable The breaking of a vein in the body The bursting of an Imposthume in the entrails A vapour which flyes up to the head A passion which oppresses the heart A tyle which falls from a house A piercing air which enters by some narrow cranny Vn yerro de cuenta A hundred thousand other occasions open the doors unto death and are his Ministers It is not then safe for man to be disarmed and naked of the grace of God in the middest of so many adversaries and dangers of death which hourly threaten him We issue from the wombs of our Mothers as condemned persons out of prison and walk towards execution for the guilt which we have contracted by Original sin Who being led to execution would entertain himself by the way with vain conceipts and frivolous jests we are all condemned persons who go to the Gallows though by different wayes which we our selves know not Some the straight way and some-by by-paths but are all sure to meet in death Who knows whether he goe the direct way or windes about by turns whether he shall arrive there soon or stay later all that we know is that we are upon the way and are not far from thence We ought therefore still to be prepared and free from the distracting pleasures of this life for fear we fall suddenly and at unawares upon it This danger of sudden death is sufficient to make us distaste all the delights of the earth Dionysius King of Sicily that he might undeceive a young Philosopher who therefore held him to enjoy the chief felicity because he wanted nothing of his pleasure caused him one day to be placed at a Royal Table and served with all variety of splendid entertainments but over the place where he was seated caused secretly a sharp-pointed Sword to be hung directly over his head sustained only by a horses hair This danger was sufficient to
where I beseech thee is the fear of his justice when knowing that thou mayest dye to day thou deferrest thy conversion for so many years so as thy vices may be rather said to leave thee than thou them Mark what St. Augustin sayes Repentance in death is very dangerous for in the holy Scripture there is but one onely found to wit the good Theef who had true repentance in his end There is one found that none should despair and but one that none should presume For in a sound man repentance is sound in an infirm man infirm and in a dead man dead Many deal with God as King Dionysius did with the Statue of Apollo from which when he took his Cloak of massie gold he said This Cloak is good neither for Summer nor Winter for Summer it is too heavy for Winter too cold So some can find no time for the service of God Almighty In youth they say It is too early and that we ought to allow that age its time of freedom and pleasure that when they are old they will seriously think of vertue and amendment of life that the vigour of youth is not to he enfeebled with the austerities of penance which renders us infirm and useless the rest of our succeeding lives But arriving at old age if by chance they attain it they have then many excuses and pretend that they want health and strength to perform their penances After this manner they would deceive God Almighty but they remain deceived themselves To the Apostle St. James this manner of speech seemed not well To morrow we will goe to such a City and there we will stay a year because we know not what shall be to morrow If then in temporal things it be not good to say I will do this to morrow what shall it be in procuring the salvation of our Souls to say Ten or twenty years hence when I am old which who knows whether ever shall be I will then serve God and repent to what purpose deferre we that untill tomorrow which imports so much to be done to day especially since it absolutely imports and perhaps will not be to morrow if not to day Aug. Confes In this error was St. Augustine as he himself confesses I felt my self saith he detained and I often repeated these words Miserable man Until when until when To morrow and to morrow And why is there not to day an end of ' my lewd life This I said and wept with most bitter contrition of my heart § 3. To this Uncertainty of death is to be added the Third Condition of being onely one and onely once to be tryed so as the error of dying ill cannot be amended by dying well another time God gave unto Man his senses and other parts of his body doubled he gave him two eyes that if one failed he might serve himself of the other he gave him two ears that if one grew deaf he might supply the defect by the other he gave him two hands that if one were lost yet he might not wholly be disabled but of deaths he gave but one and if that one miscarry all is ruin'd A terrible case that the thing which most imports us which is to dye hath neither tryal experience or remedy it is but onely once to be acted and that in an instant and upon that instant all Eternity depends in which if we fail the error is never to be amended Plutarch writes of Lamachus the Centurion that reprehending a Souldier for some error committed in warre the Souldier promised him he would do so no more Unto whom the discreet Centurion replyed Thou sayest well for in warre the mischief which follows the first error is so great that thou canst not erre twice And if in warre you cannot erre twice in death you ought not to erre once the error being wholly irrepairable If an ignorant Peasant who had never drawn a Bow should be commanded to shoot at at a mark far distant upon condition that if he hit it he should be highly rewarded with many brave and rich gifts but if he mist it and that at the first shoot he should be burnt alive in what streights would this poor man find himself how perplexed that he should be forced upon a thing of that difficulty wherein he had no skill and that the failing should cost him so dear as his life but especially that it was only once to be essayed without possibility of repairing the first fault by a second trial This is our case I know not how we are so jocund We have never dyed we have no experience or skill in a thing of so great difficulty we are onely once to dye and in that all is at stake either eternity of torments in hell or of happiness in heaven how live we then so careless and forgetful of dying well since for it we were born and are but once to try it This action is the most important of all our life the which is to pass in the presence of God and Angels upon it depends all eternity and if mist without repair or amendment Those human actions which may be repeated if one miss the other may hit and that which is lost in one may be regained in another If a rich Merchant has this year a Ship sunk in the Ocean another may arrive the next loaden with such riches as may recompence the loss of the former And if a great Oratour miscarry in his declamation and lose his credit he may with another recover it but if we once fail in death the loss is never to be restored That which is but onely one is worthy of more care and esteem because the loss of it is irrepairable Let us then value the time of this life since there is no other given us wherein to gain Eternity Let us esteem that time wherein we may practice a precious death or to say better both a precious life and death learning in life how to dye It was well said by a pious Doctor If those who are to execute some office or perform some matter of importance or if it be but of pleasure as to dance or play at Tennis yet study first before they come to do it why should we not then study the art of dying which to do well is an action more dfficult and important than all others If a man were obliged to leap some great and desperate leap upon condition that if he performed it well he should be made Master of a wealthy Kingdom but if ill he should be chained to an Oar and made a perpetual Galley-slave Without all doubt this man would use much diligence in preparing himself for so hazardous an undertaking and would often practice before an action of so great consequence from which he expected so different fortunes How far more different are those which we expect from so great a leap as is that from life to death since the Kingdoms of Earth
not to an ordinary River but to a River of fire for the greatness and severity of the rigour shall be repressed for 30 or 40 years during the life of a man what an infinity of wrath will it amass together and with what fury will it burst out upon the miserable Sinners in the point of death All this rigour and severity shall the wretched Caytif behold in the face of the offended Judge And therefore the Prophet Daniel saith that a River of fire issued from his Countenance and that his Throne was of flames and the wheels of it burning fire because all shall then be fire rigour and justice He sets forth unto us his Tribunal and Throne with wheels to signifie thereby the force and violence of his omnipotency in executing the severity of his justice all which shall appear in that moment when Sinners shall be brought into judgment when the Lord as David sayes shall speak unto them in his wrath and confound them in his fury The which is also declared by other Prophets in most terrible and threatning words Isai 56. Isaias saith The Lord will come cloathed in garments of vengeance and covered with a robe of zeal and will give unto his adversaries his indignation and his enemies shall have their turn And the Wise-man to declare it more fully saith His zeal that is his indignation shall take up arms and shall arm the creatures to revenge him of his enemies he shall put on justice as a brest-plate be shall take the bead-piece of righteous judgment and embrace the inexpugnable shield of equity and shall sharpen his wrath as a lance Osee 13. The Prophet Osee declares the same proposing the Judge unto us not onely as an enraged and armed man but a fierce and cruel Beast and therefore speaking in the person of God saith I will appear unto them in that instant at a Bear that hath been robbed of her whelps I will tear their entrails in pieces and will devour them as a Lyon There is no beast more fierce of nature than a Lyon or Bear which hath lost her young ones the which will furiously assault him she first meets with and yet God whose nature is infinite goodness would compare himself unto so savage and cruel beasts to express the terrour of his justice and rigour with which he is in that day to shew himself against Sinners The consideration of this wrought so much with Abbot Agathon when he was at the point of dying In vitis Pat. that he continued three dayes in admiration his eyes for fear and dread continually broad open without moving from one side to the other Certainly all comparisons and exaggerations fall short of what it shall be since that day is The day of wrath and calamity That is the day when the Lord shall speak aloud in lieu of the many dayes wherein he hath been silent That is the day of which he spake by his Prophet I held my peace and was mute but I will then cry out as a woman in labour That day shall take up all his justice and shall recompence for all his years of sufferance That day shall be purely of justice without mixture of mercy hope of compassion help favour or any other patronage but of our works This is signified in that which Daniel saith that the Throne and Tribunal of God was of flames and that there shall proceed from his face a river of fire because fire besides that it is the most active nimble and vehement of all the Elements is also the most pure not admitting the mixture of any thing The earth contains Mines of Mettals and Quarries of Stone the water suffers in her bosome variety of Fishes the Air multitudes of vapours and exhalations and other bodies but Fire endures nothing it melts the hardest mettals reduces stones into cinders consumes living creatures converts trees into it self in so much as it is not onely impatient of a companion but infuses its own qualities into what it meets withall and turns even what is contrary unto it into its own substance and nature it does not onely melt snow but makes it boyl and makes cold iron burn So shall it be in that day all shall be rigour and justice without mixture of mercy nay the very mercies which God hath used towards a Sinner shall then be an argument and food for his justice O man which hast now time consider in what condition thou shalt see thy self in that instant when neither the blood of Christ shed for thee nor the Son of God crucified nor the intercession of the most blessed Virgin nor the Prayers of Saints nor the Divine mercy it self shall avail thee but shall onely behold an incensed and revenging God whose mercies shall then onely serve to augment his justice Thou shalt then perceive that none will take thy part but all will be against thee The most holy Virgin who is the Mother of mercy the mercy of God himself and the blood of thy Redeemer will all be against thee and onely thy good works shall stand for thee This life once past thou art to expect no Patron no Protector but thy vertuous actions onely they shall accompany thee and when thy Angel Guardian Theophan an 20. Herac. Imper. ut habetur in tom 2. p. 2. Concil in notis ad vitam Theodori Papae and all the Saints thy Advocates shall leave thee they onely shall not forsake thee See that thou provide thy self for that day take care thou now benefit thy self by the blood of Christ for thy salvation if not it will onely serve for thy greater damnation The whole world was amazed at the manner of the condemnation of Pyrrhus the Heretick by Pope Theodâ—rus who calling a Councel at Rome and placing himself close by the body of St. Peter in the presence of the whole Assembly took the consecrated Chalice and pouring the blood of Christ into the Ink did with his own hand write the Sentence of excommunion and Anathema by which he separated Pyrrhus from the Church of Christ This dreadful manner of proceeding brought a fear upon all those who heard it Do thou then tremble unto whom it may happen that the blood of thy Redeemer shall onely serve as a Sentence of thy eternal death For so severe will the Divine justice be in that day against a Sinner that if it were needful for his condemnation to confirm the Sentence with the blood of Christ it should although once shed upon the Cross for his salvation then onely serve to his damnation and eternal reprobation If this be true as nothing can be more certain how come we to be so careless how come we to laugh and rejoyce In vitis Pat. lib. 5. With great reason an old Hermite in the Desert beholding another laugh reprehended him for it saying We are to give a strict account before the Lord of Heaven and Earth the most inflexible Judge and darest thou be
purified in that general burning and then shall be renewed the Earth the Heavens the Stars and the Sun which shall shine seaven times more than before and the creatures which have here been violated and oppressed by the abuse of man whereof some had taken armes against him to revenge the injuries of their Creatour and others groaned under their burthen with grief and sorrow shall then rejoyce to see themselves freed from the tyranny of sin and sinners and joyful of the triumph of Christ shall put on mirth and gladness This is the end wherein all time is to determine and this the Catastrophe so fearful unto the wicked where all things temporal are to conclude Let us therefore take heed how we use them and that we may use them well let us be mindful of this last day this day of justice and calamity this day of terrour and amazement the memory whereof will serve much for the reformation of our lives Let us think of it and fear it for it is the most terrible of all things terrible and the consideration of it most profitable and available to cause in us a holy fear of God and to convert us unto him Joh. Curopol in hist apud Rad. in opusc in vitis PP Occidentis John Curopolata writes of Bogoris King of the Bulgarians a Pagan who was so much addicted to the hunting of wilde beasts that he desired to have them painted in his Palace in all their fury and fierceness and to that end commanded Methodius the Monk a skilful Painter to paint them in so horrible a manner as the very sight might make the beholders tremble The discreet Monk did it not but in place of it painted the Day of Judgement and presented it unto the King who beholding that terrible act of Justice and the coming of the Son of God to judge the World crowning and rewarding the just and punishing the wicked was much astonished at it and being after instructed left his bad life and was converted to the faith of Christ If onely then the Day of Judgement painted was so terrible what shall it be executed Almost the same happened unto St. Dositheus Anon. in Elog. Dorothei Dosithei who being a young man cokored and brought up in pleasures had not in his whole life so much as heard of the Day of Judgement until by chance he beheld a Picture in which were represented the pains of the damned at which he was much amazed and not knowing what it was was informed of it by a Matron present which he apprehended so deeply that he fell half dead upon the ground not being able to breath for fear and terrour after coming to himself he demanded what he should doe to avoid that miserable condition it was answered him by the same Matron that he should fast pray and abstain from flesh which he immediately put in execution And though many of his house and kindred endeavoured to divert and disswade him yet the holy fear of God and the dread of eternal condemnation which he might incurre remained so fixt in his memory that nothing could withdraw him from his rigorous penance and holy resolution until becoming a Monk he continued with much fruit and profit Let us therefore whiles we live ever preserve in our memory this day of terrour that we may hereafter enjoy security for the whole eternity of God THE THIRD BOOK OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT THE TEMPORAL and ETERNAL CAP. I. The mutability of things temporal makes them worthy of contempt HItherto we have spoken of the shortness of time and consequently of all things temporal and of the end wherein they are to conclude Nothing is exempted from death and therefore not onely humane life but all things which follow time and even time it self at last must die Wherefore Hesichius Damas in Par. l. 1. as he is translated by St. John Damascen saith That the splendour of this world is but as withered leaves bubles of water smoke stubble a shadow and dust driven by the wind all things that are of earth being to end in earth But this is not all for besides the certainty of end they are infected with another mischief which renders them much more contemptible than that which is their instability and continual changes whereunto they are subject even whilest they are For as time it self is in a perpetual succession and mutation as being the brother and inseparable companion of Motion so it fixes this ill condition unto most of those things which pass along in it the which not onely have an end and that a short one but even during that shortness of time which they last have a thousand changes and before their end many ends and before their death many deaths each particular change which our life suffers being the death of some estate or part of if For as death is the total change of life so every change is the death of Come part Sickness is the death of health sleeping of waking sorrow of joy impatience of quiet youth of infancy and age of youth The same condition hath the universal world and all things in it for which cause they deserve so much contempt that Marcus Aurelius the Emperour wondered that there could be found a man so senseless Aur. Anton l. 6. de vita sua as to value them and therefore speaks in this manner Of that very thing which is now in doing some part is already vanisht changes and alterations continually innovate the world as that immense space of time by a perpetual flux renews it self Who therefore shall esteem those things which never subsist but pass along in this headlong and precipitate river of time is as he who sets his affection upon some little bird which passes along in the air and is no more seen Thus much from this Philosopher This very cause of the little value of things temporal proceeding from their perpetual changes together with the end whereunto they are subject is as St. Gregory notes signified unto us by that Woman in the Apocalyps Greg. l. 34. moral who had the Moon under her feet and her head adorned with twelve Stars Certainly the Moon as well as the Stars might have been placed in her Diadem but it was trod under foot by reason of the continual changes and alterations which it suffers whereby it becomes a figure of things temporal which change not onely every Moneth but every day the same day being as Euripides sayes now a Mother then a Stepmother The same was also signified by the Angel Apoc. 10. who crowned with a Rainbow descended from heaven to proclaim that all time was to end with his right foot which presses and treads more firmly he stood upon the Sea which by reason of its great unquietness is also a figure of the instability of this World And therefore with much reason did the Angel who had taught us by his voice that all time and temporal things
miserable end of Man saith Man is converted into no man why therefore art thou proud know that thou wert in the womb unclean seed and curdled blood exposed afterward to sin and the many miseries of this life and after death shalt be the food of worms Wherefore doest thou wax proud Dust and ashes whose conception was in sin whose birth in misery whole life in pain and whose death necessity wherefore doest thou swell and adorn thy flesh with precious things which in few dayes is to be devoured by worms and doest not rather adorn thy soul with good works which is to be presented in heaven before God and his Angels All this is spoken by St. Bernard which every man ought to take as spoken unto himself §. 2. Besides that man is a thing so poor and little and composed of so base and vile materials this littleness this vileness hath no firmness nor consistence but is a river of changes a perpetual corruption and as Secundus the Philosopher sayes Lib. 11. de Praepa Evan. c. 7. A fantasme of time whose instability is thus declared by Eusebius of Caesarea Our nature from our birth until our death is unstable and as it were fantastical which if you strive to comprehend is like water gathered in the palm of the hand the more you grasp it the more you spill it In the same manner those mutable and transitory things the more you consider them with reason the more they flye from you Things sensible being in a perpetual flux are still doing and undoing still generating and corrupting and never remain the same For as Heraclitus sayes as it is impossible to enter twice into the same river because the same water remains not but new succeeds still as the first passes so if you consider twice this mortal substance you shall not both times find it the same but with an admirable swiftness of change it is now extended now contracted but it is not well said to say Now and Now for in the same time it loses in one part and gains in another and is another thing than what it is in so much as it never rests The Embrion which is framed from seed quickly becomes an Infant from thence a Boy from thence a Young-man from thence an Old and then decrepit and so the first ages being past and corrupted by new ones which succeed it comes at last to die How ridiculous then are men to fear one death who have already died so many and are yet to die more Not onely as Heraclitus said The corruption of fire is the generation of air but this appears more plainly in our selves for from youth corrupted is engendred man and from him the old man from the boy corrupted is engendered the youth and from the infant the boy and from who was not yesterday he who is to day and of him who is to day he who shall be to morrow so as he never remains the same but in every moment we change as it were with various phantasms in one common matter For if we be still the same how come we to delight in things we did not before we now love and abhorre after another manner than formerly we now praise and dispraise other things than we did before we use other words and are moved with other affections we do not hold the same form nor pass the same judgement we did and how is it possible that without change in our selves we should thus change in our motions and affections certainly he who still changes is not the same and he who is not the same cannot be said to be but in a continual mutation slides away like water The sense is deceived with the ignorance of what is and thinks that to be which is not Where shall we then finde true being but in that onely which is eternal and knows no beginning which is incorruptible which is not changed with time Time is moveable and joyned with movable matter glides away like a current and like a vessel of generation and corruption retains nothing in so much as the first and the last that which was and that which shall be are nothing and that which seems present passes like lightning Wherefore as time is defined to be the measure of the motion of things sensible and as time never is nor can be so we may with the like reason say that things sensible do not remain nor are nor have any being All this is from Eusebius which David declared more briefly and significantly when he said That man whilest he lived in this life was an Universal vanity Wherefore St. Gregory Nazianzen said In laud. Caes that we are a dream unstable like a Spectre or Apparition which could not be laid hold on Let man therefore reflect upon all which hath been said let him behold himself in this glass let him see wherefore he presumes wherefore he afflicts himself for things of the earth which are so small in themselves and so prejudicial unto him With reason did the Prophet say In vain doth man trouble himself Upon which St. Chrysostome with great admiration speaks in this manner Chrysost in Ps 36. Man troubles himself and loses his end he troubles himself consumes and melts to nothing as if he had never been born he troubles himself and before he attains rest is overwhelmed he is inflamed like fire and is reduced to ashes like flax he mounts on high like a tempest and like dust is scattered and disappears he is kindled like a flame and vanishes like smoke he glories in his beauty like a flower and withers like hay he spreads himself as a cloud and is contracted as a drop he swells like a bubble of water and and goes out like a spark he is troubled and carries nothing about him but the filth of riches he is troubled onely to gain dirt he is troubled and dies without fruit of his vexations His are the troubles others the joyes his are the cares others the contents his are the afflictions others the fruit his are the heart-burstings others the delights his are the curses others have the respect and reverence against him the sighs and exclamations of the persecuted are sent up to Heaven and against him the tears of the poor are poured out and the riches and abundance remains with others he shall howl and be tormented in hell whilest others sing triumph and vainly consume his estate In vain do living men trouble themselves Man is he who enjoyes a life but lent him and that but for a short time Man is but a debt of death which is to be paid without delay a living Creature who is in his will and appetite untamed a mischief taught without a Master a voluntary ambush subtle in wickedness witty in iniquity prone to covetousness insatiable in the desire of what is anothers of a boasting spirit and full of insolent temerity in his words fierce but easily quailed bold but quickly mastered an
undefiled superiour to all grief and pleasure that thou do nothing without a good end nothing feignedly or falsely and that thou regard not what another man does or has to doe Besides that all things which happen thou receive as sent from thence from whence thou thy self art derived Finally that thou attend death with a quiet and temperate minde This is from that great Philosopher CAP. X. The dangers and prejudices of things Temporal THe least evil which we receive from the goods of this world is to deceive and frustrate our hopes and he comes well off whom they forsake onely with a mock For there are many who not onely fail of what they desire but meet with what they abhorre and in place of ease and content meet with trouble and vexation and instead of life finde death and that which they most affect turns often to their destruction Absolon being very beautiful gloried in nothing more than his hair but even those became the instrument of his death and those which he daily combed as if they had been threads of gold served as a halter to hang him upon an Oak To how many have riches which they loved as their life been an occasion of death This is the calamity of the goods of the earth which the Wise-man noted when he said Eccle. 5. Another dangerous evil I beheld under the Sun riches preserved for the destruction of their owner This is the general and incurable infirmity of riches that when they are possessed with affection they turn into the ruine of their possessors either in soul or body and oftentimes in both in so much as we are not to look upon temporal goods as vain and deceitful but as Parricides and our betrayers With much reason the two great Prophets Isaias and Ezechiel compare Egypt by which is signified the world and humane prosperity unto a reed which if you lean upon it breaks and the splinters wound your hands No less brittle than a reed are temporal goods but more dangerous Besides the other faults wherewith they may be charged a very great one is the hurts they doe to life it self for whose good they are desired and are commonly not onely hurtful unto the life eternal but prejudicial even unto the temporal How many for their desire to obtain them have lost the happiness of heaven and the quiet felicity of the earth enduring before death a life of death and by their cares griefs fears troubles labours and afflictions which are caused even by the greatest abundance and felicity before they enter into the hell of the other world suffer a hell in this And therefore St. John writes in his Apocalyps Apoc. 20. that Death and Hell were cast into a lake of fire because the life of sinners of whom he speaks according to the letter is a death and hell and he sayes that this Life and this Hell shall be cast into the other hell and he who places his felicity in the goods of the earth shall pass from one death unto another and from one hell unto another Let us look upon the condition whereunto Aman was brought by his abundance of temporal fortunes into so excessive a pride that because he was denied a respect which was no wayes due unto him he lived a life of death smothering in his breast a hell of rage madness and hatred nothing in this life as he himself confest giving him ease or content What condition more like unto death and hell than this for as in hell there is a privation of all joyes and delights so oftentimes it happens in the greatest felicities upon earth The same which Aman confessed Dionysius felt when he was King of Sicily to wit that he took no content at all in the greatest delights of his Kingdom Tull. in Tuscul q. Boet. l. de consol And therefore Boetius sayes that if we could take away the veil from those who sit in Thrones are clad in Purple and compassed about with Guards of Souldiers we should see the chains in which their Souls are enthralled conformable unto which is that of Plutarch that in name onely they are Princes but in every thing else Slaves A marvelous thing it is that a man compassed about with delights pastimes and pleasures should joy in nothing and in the middest of dancing drinking feasting and dainty fair should find a hell in his heart That in hell amongst so many torments sinners should not finde comfort is no marvail at all but that in this life in the middest of felicity and affluence of all delights he should finde no satisfaction is a great mystery A great mischief than is humane prosperity that amongst all its contents it affords no room for one true one But this is Divine providence that as the Saints who despised what was temporal had in their souls in the very middest of torments a heaven of joy and pleasure as St. Lawrence who in the middest of flames found a Paradice in his heart so the Sinner who neither esteems nor loves any thing besides those of the world should also in the middest of his regalo's and delights finde a life of hell and torments anticipating that whereunto after death he is to enter and be confined So great are the cares and griefs occasioned by the goods of the earth that they oppress those who most enjoy them and shut up the door to all mirth leaving them in a sad night of sorrow This is that which was represented unto the Prophet Zacharias Zach. 5. when before that the Devils came to fetch away the Vessel wherein the woman was enclosed to be carried into a strange Region in the Land of Sanaar there to dwell for ever the mouth of it was stopt up with a talent of Lead and she imprisoned in darkness and obscurity signifying thereby that before a worldling is snatcht away by the Devils to be carried into the mournful land of hell even in this life he is hood-winked and placed in so great a darkness as he sees not one beam of the light of truth so that no content or compleat joy can ever enter into his heart § 2. The reason why the goods of this life are troublesome and incommodious even to life it self is for the many dangers they draw along with them the obligations wherein they engage us the cares which they require the fears which they cause the affronts which they occasion the straights whereunto they put us the troubles which they bring along with them the disordinate desires which accompany them and finally the evil conscience which they commonly have who most esteem them With reason did Christ our Redeemer call riches thorns because they ensnare and wound us with danger losses unquietness and fears Wherefore Job said of the rich man Job 20. Greg. l. 15. Mor. c. 12. When he shall be filled he shall be straightned he shall burn and all manner of grief shall fall upon him The which St.
Third an immortal Death O Death how much less cruel art thou in taking away life than in forcing to live in so painful a manner Greg. Moral l. 9. c. 49. St. Gregory also sayes In hell there shall be unto the miserable a death without death and an end without end for their death shall ever live and their end shall ever begin Mortal sin is the greatest of all evils and consequently deserves the greatest of all punishments Because in ordinary death which takes away the use of the senses the rigour of it is not felt God ordained another kind of death in which the senses perpetually dying should perpetually feel the force of pain and should ever live in the agony of dying This David signitied when he said That death should feed on the damned for as the Flock pastures upon the grass but ends it not because it still grows green and fresh again so that death feeds upon sinners but consumes them not This death of the damned the holy Scripture calls the second death Because it succeeds the first and comprehends both that of soul and bodie And with much reason may it also be called a double death because death is then doubled when we die and feel the torment of dying which in the first death of the body we do not Even here amongst us if there should be a condition in which we might be sensible but of some part of that which death brings along with it it would be esteemed a greater evil than death it self Who doubts but if one after burial should find himself alive and sensible under the earth where he could speak with no body see nothing but darkness hear nothing but those who walked above him smell nothing but the rotten stink of their bodies cat nothing but his own flesh nor feel any thing but the earth which opprest him or the cold pavement of the Vault where he lay Who doubts not I say but that this estate were worse than to be wholly dead since life onely served to feel the pain of death For this reason the ingenious Romans when they would punish Sacriledge which is the greatest crime made use of interring the offenders alive as of the greatest punishment and therefore executed it upon their Vestal Virgins when they offended a gainst their chastity as upon Oppia and Minutia that being alive they might feel the pain and bitterness of dying And certainly Zeno the Emperour found this punishment so bitter that he devoured his own flesh by morsels What Sepulcher is more horrible than that of Hell what is eternally shut upon those who are in it whore the miserable damned remain not onely under earth but under fire having sense for nothing but to feel death darkness loathsomness pain and stink This is therefore a double death because to feel the pain of death is an evil double to that of dying Lib. 6. de Civit. ca. 12. Wherefore St. Austin said No death is greater or worse than where death dies not Besides this death of Hell may be called a double death in respect it contains both the death of sin ang the death of pain those unfortunate wretches standind condemned never to be freed from the death of sin and for ever to be tormented with the death of pain There is no greater death than that of the Soul which is sin in which the miserable are to continue whilest God is God with that infinite evil and that ugly deformity which sin draws along with it which is worse than to suffer that eternal fire which is but the punishment of it After sin what pain should there be greater than that of sin it self and for this reason in Hell in regard 't is the torment for sin it is a greater pain than death it self or the most horrible death of all Who trembles not with the onely memory that he is to die remembring that he is to cease to be that the feet whereon he walks are no more to bear him that his hands are no more to serve him nor his eyes to see Why then do we not rather tremble at the thought of Hell in respect of which the first death is no punishment but a reward a happiness and a joy there being no damned in Hell but would take that death which we here inflict for offences as an ease of his pains O how much does the Divine Justice exceed the humane since that which men give unto those whom they condemn for the greatest offences would be received by those whom God condemns as a great ease comfort and accomplishment of their desires who shall desire death and death shall flye from them for unto all their evils and miseries this as the greatest is adjoyned that neither They nor It shall shall ever die This circumstance of being eternal doth much augment the torments of Hell such being the condition of eternity as hath been already declared that it doth infinitely augment that whereunto it is annexed Let us suppose that one had but a Gnat that should sting his right hand and a Wasp at the left and that one foot should be pricked with a Thorn and the other with a Pin. If this onely were to last for ever it would be an intolerable torment What will it then be when hands feet arms head bread and entrails are to burn for all eternity The onely holding one finger in a Candle for the space of a quarter of an hour no body would be able to suffer it To be then plunged into the infernal flames for years eternal what understanding is there that is able I do not say to express in words but to frame a due conception of this torment That a torment is never to cease and that the tormented is to live for ever the onely thinking of it causes great horror What would it be to suffer it Sur. To. 7. die 14. April A certain man who had not much repentance or feeling it seems of his sins having expressed divers most heinous offences to the holy Virgin St. Lidwine the Saint replyed That she would do penance for them contenting her self that he should onely lye in his Bed one night in the same posture looking up towards Heaven without moving or turning himself all night The man very contented and joyful If my penance says he be no greater than this I shall soon have performed it But he was scarce laid down in his Bed when he had a mind to turn on one side it being a great trouble to him not to do it perswading himself that he never lay so uneasie his whole life before and said unto himself My Bed is a very good one and soft I am well in health what is wanting to me nothing else is wanting but onely to turn me from one side to the other But this what is it be quiet and sleep as thou art till morning Canst thou not then tell me what doth aile thee By this means he call'd
and peopled with such a multitude of beautiful Citizens as are as farre above any imaginable number as the capacity of the City is above any imaginable measure Some famous Mathematicians say of die Empyrial Heaven that it is so great that if God should allow unto every one of the blessed a greater space than the whole Earth yet there would remain as much more to give unto others and that the capaciousness of this Heaven is so great that it contains more than ten thousand and fourteen millions of miles What wonder will it be to see a City so great of so precious matter The Divines confess the capaciousness of this Heaven to be immense but are more willing to admire it than bold to measure it Joan. Gailer in suo Peregrino Howsoever there wants not one who sayes that if God should make each grain of sand upon the Sea-shore as big as the whole Earth they would not fill the Concave of the Empyrial Heaven and yet this Holy City possesseth all that space and is all composed of matter far more beautiful and precious than Gold Pearl and Diamonds For certain our thoughts cannot conceive so great riches and wonders for which we ought to undergoe all the pains and necessities of this World St. Francis of Assisium being afflicted with a grievous pain of his eyes in so much as he could neither sleep Chron. Frat. Min. p. 1. c. 60. nor take any rest and at the same time molested by the Devil who filled his Cell with Rats which with their Careers and noise added much unto his pain with great patience gave thanks unto the Lord that he had so gently chastized him saying My Lord Jesus Christ I deserve greater punishment but thou like a good Shepherd suffer me not to stray from thee Being in this meditation he heard a voice which said unto him Francis if all the Earth were of Gold and all the Rivers of Balsame and all the Rocks of precious Stones wouldest thou not say that this were a great treasure Know that a treasure which exceeds Gold as farre as Gold does Dirt Balsam Water or Precious-stones Pibbles remains as a reward for thy infirmity if thou be content and bear it with patience Rejoyce Francis for this treasure is Celestial glory which is gained by tribulations Certainly we have reason to suffer here all pains and poverty whatsoever since we are to receive in glory so much the greater riches Wherefore we ought to lift up our souls and weaning our hearts from the frail felicity of these temporal goods of the Earth to say with David Glorious things are said of thee City of God So did Fulgentius who entring Rome when it was yet in its lustre and beholding the greatness beauty and marvelous Architecture of it said with admiration O Celestial Jerusalem how beautiful must thou be if Terrestrial Rome be such A shadow of this was shewed unto St. Josaphat whose History is written by St. John Damascen In vita Josaph Barl. St Josaphat being in profound prayer prostrate upon the earth was overtaken with a sweet sleep in which he saw two men of grave demeanour who carried him through many unknown Countries unto a Field full of flowers and plants of rare beauty laden with fruit never before seen The leaves of the trees moved with a soft and gentle wind yielded a pleasant sound and breathed forth a most sweet odour there were placed many Seats of Gold and precious Stones which shined with a new kind of brightness and a little Brook of Chrystal water refreshed the air and pleased the sight with a most agreable variety From thence he was brought into a most beautiful City whose Walls were of transparent Gold the Towers and Battlements were of Stones of inestimable value the Streets and places shone with Celestial beams of light And there passed up and down bright Armies of Angels and Seraphins chanting such songs as were never heard by mortal ears Amongst other he heard a voice which said This is the repose of the Just this the joy of those who have given a good account of their lives unto God But all this is no more than a dream and a shadow in comparison of the truth greatness and riches of that Celestial Court. In regard that all the Blessed together with Christ are to raign in this most rich City and Kingdom how great shall the riches be who was ever so rich as to have at the entrance of his House a massie large piece of Gold two or three yards long What riches will those be of Heaven because all the Kingdom of Heaven is to be of pure Gold all the Streets and all the Houses of that Holy City and not only Gold but more than Gold The holy Scripture to make us on one part understand the riches of this Kingdom of God and on the other part to know that they are of a higher and more excellent nature than those of the Earth expresses them with the similitude of the riches of this World as Gold Pearl and precious Stones because by these names we understand things of great wealth and value but withall sets them forth for such as are not to be found upon earth so as when it speaks of Pearls it sayes they were so great as they served for the Gates of a City when it speaks of Emeralds and Topaz's it makes them to suffice for the foundatian of high Walls and Turrets when of Gold it makes it transparent as Glass or Chrystal All this is to signifie that in Heaven there are not onely greater riches but of a more sublime and high quality than ours upon Earth And with reason is that Holy City called the Kingdom of Heaven to let us know that the same advantage that Heaven hath above Earth the same have Celestial honours riches and joyes above those which are here below If the whole Earth is no more than a point in respect of the Heavens what can those short and corruptible riches be in respect of the eternal § 3. Of those incomparable riches the Blessed are not onely to be Lords but Kings as appears in many places of holy Scripture Neither is the Celestial Treasure â—or this Kingdom of Heaven less or poorer by having so many Lords and Kings It is not like the Kingdoms on Earthy which permit but one King at once and if divided become of less power and Majesty but is of such condition that it is wholly possessed by all in general and by each one in particular like the Sun which warms all and every one and not one less because it warms many The effects of riches are much greater and more noble in Heaven than they can be upon Earth Wealth may serve us here to maintain our power honours and delights but all the Gold in the world cannot free us from weakness infamy and pain The power of a rich King can reach no further than to Command his Vassals and those
who disobey him he may either chastise with imprisonment or death and is therefore fear'd and respected by them But all this power is invalid without the assistance of his Subjects For what will it avail a Prince to command such a City to be defended if the Souldiers within have a minde to deliver it And therefore a certain Jester of Philip the Second King of Spain demanded of him If all should say No unto what your Majesty commands what was to be done giving him to understand that his power depends upon others The power of a Monarch depends not onely upon the will of his Subjects but the Walls of his Fortresses Arms Instruments of Warre and many other things so as the people depend onely upon one man which is the Prince but the Prince upon many men and matters in so much as many rich Kings have been seen without power as Craesus Andronicus and others who were not able to defend themselves with all their riches from their own Vassals Witness Domitian Commodus Heliogabolus and Julius Caesar But the power of the Blessed depends of no other power nor man Ansel de Simil. c. 52. which as St. Anselm sayes shall be so great as no force or resistance shall withstand it It a Saint have a mind to remove a Mountain from one place to another he shall do it with as much ease as we remove our eyes from one part unto another Neither is this a wonder For even the faithful in this life according to the promise of Christ have done it as is written of St. Gregorius Thaumaturgus and some others And if Angels nay Devils have this power the Blessed shall not be denyed it Concerning honour the richest Princes can onely make their Vassals to adore them upon the knee and do them other outward reverence but cannot hinder them from murmuring in their absence or from observing their actions and interpreting them as they please They have many flatterers which praise them with their tongues and scorn them in their hearts and for the most part they are farre fewer who praise than despise them for there are but few who discourse with them but many who discourse of them and therefore few who praise them in presence and many who censure them in absence Concerning pleasures it is true that Princes are not content with ordinary delights and therefore provide themselves of magnificent Shews costly Recreations exquisite Comedies pleasant Gardens Woods for hunting and are all cloathed splendidly But none of those can make a Calenture not to afflict them or that the pains of the head stomack or gout do not molest them or that cares and fears do not break their sleep No gold or money can secure the goods of this World or free them from imperfections This onely is to be had in Heaven where their power is so free from weakness that one onely Angel without Army Guns Swords 4 Reg. 19. or Lance could destroy at once 180000 men with what speed and facility do Saints succour their devotes who invoke them without impediment either from the distance of place or hinderance from the violence of Tyrants How compleat then shall be the honor of the Blessed since even the Devils shall reverence them Nay even now many who despised them living seeing the many miracles which God hath wrought by their intercession have honoured them after death The pleasures also are pure and true without mixture of pain or grief as we shall see in the proper places Besides it is to be considered that the great riches of the Saints are not like those of the Kings of the Earth drawn from the tributes imposed upon their Vassals which though just yet are not free from this ill condition that what enricheth the Prince impoverisheth the Subject The riches in Heaven have no such blemishes they are burthensome to none and what is given to the Servants of Christ who raigns in Heaven is not taken from any CAP. IV. Of the greatness of Eternal Pleasures HOnour Profit and Pleasures are distinct goods upon Earth and are rarely found together Honour is seldom a companion of profit and profit of pleasure And so the sick man drinks his Purge because it is profitable how bitter soever Besides the pleasures or the world are for the most part mixt with some shame and oftentimes with infamy They are costly and expensive we cannot entertain our pleasures without diminishing our wealth It is not so in eternal goods in which to be honest is to be profitable and to be profitable delectable Eternal honours are accompanied with immense riches and they are both attended by pleasures without end All this is signified by the Lord when he received the faithful Servant into glory when he sayes Well done good servant and true because thou hast been faithful in a few things I will place thee over many Enter into the joy of thy Lord. In these words he first honours him commending him for a good and faithful Servant then enriches him delivering many things into his hands and so admits him into the joy and pleasure of his Lord signifying by this manner of expression the greatness of this joy not saying that this joy should enter in to him but that he should enter into joy and into no other but that of his Lord. So great is the joy of that Celestial Paradise that it wholly fills and embraces the blessed Souls which enter into Heaven as into an immense Sea of pleasure and delight The joyes of the Earth enter into the hearts of those who possess them but fill them not because the capacity of mans heart is greater than they can satisfie But the joyes of Heaven receive the Blessed into themselves and fill and overflow them in all parts Their glory is like an Ocean of delights into which the Saints enter as a Sponge into the Sea which filling its whole capacity the water surrounds and compasses it all about Whereupon St. Anselme sayes Ansel ca. 71. de Simil. Joy shall be within and without Joy above and below Joy round about on every side and all parts full of joy The same immensity of joy the Lord signified when he said by Isaias Behold I create Jerusalem an exultation Isai 65. and her people a joy It is much to be noted that he sayes not I create a rejoycing for Jerusalem or in Jerusalem nor a joy in or for its people but by a particular mystery I make Jerusalem that it shall be all an exultation and its people all a joy He speaks in this manner to set forth the greatness of his copious joy with which that holy City and her Inhabitants shall be as it were encompassed and overwhelmed For as a plate of iron in the middle of a Furnace is so wholly inkindled and penetrated by fire that it seems fire it self and contains the full heat of the Furnace So a blessed Soul in Heaven is so replenished with that Celestial joy